'Fiscal cliff' looms over Erie schools

Erie School District Superintendent Jay Badams is photographed in the Erie Times-News studio in Erie on April 11. GREG WOHLFORD/ERIE TIMES-NEWS

Inaction on the looming "fiscal cliff" could mean larger classes in the Erie School District.

Erie schools Superintendent Jay Badams said his district could lose millions of dollars in federal funding for the 2013-14 school year if Congress can't reach a deal on the impending set of spending cuts and tax hikes.

"At this point, we've only talked about it hypothetically, hoping like most people that there will be a resolution," Badams said.

Badams said his district receives about $30 million in federal funding each year. If no deal is reached before Tuesday, the federal government could impose an across-the-board cut of 8.2 percent on K-12 education funding, going into effect at the start of the next school year.

The reduced funding would affect all of the school districts in the area, and the country, but the cash-strapped Erie School District is particularly vulnerable to cuts.

The Erie district could lose about $2.5 million for the 2013-14 school year from money used to pay for special education and English as a second language programs, among others.

The district, which has been wrestling with financial deficits of its own, has more heavily relied on federal funding in recent years. For example, school district officials used a portion of this year's federal subsidy to pay for teachers, to keep class sizes down after closing Burton, Glenwood and Irving elementary schools.

When Badams closed those schools, shifted attendance boundaries and laid off teachers before the start of the school year, he promised that the district's schools would maintain an average class size of about 25 students.

But after making all the changes, district officials found classes at several schools -- most notably Diehl, Edison and McKinley elementary schools -- were at or above 30 students.

"So we devoted some or our federal funds to reduce those class sizes," Badams said.

The district brought in eight teachers at the start of the school year for that reason.

The district has spent the past two and a half years inching its way toward financial stability after years of spending more money than it had.

School officials cut staff and programs to close a $26.2 million budget deficit for the 2011-12 school year and a $12.7 million deficit heading into the current year.

Administrators were already expecting a smaller, but still sizable, budget deficit heading into the 2013-14 school year. Badams said failed negotiations in Washington, D.C., will only slow the district's recovery.

"To be $2 million short, that's a lot," Badams said. "I'm almost at the point of saying, 'uncle.'"

Federal money accounts for just under 20 percent of the Erie School District's funding. Some of the programs it helps cover, like special education, must still be offered by law even if funding is cut.

He said if federal funds are cut, the district might be forced to look at some things once considered unthinkable, like four-day weeks.

"We will have to make decisions on making some pretty massive changes," Badams said.

Badams said he's not expecting outside help if the federal government drops its funding.

"The state is certainly not going to make up that $2.5 million," Badams said. "So, we're back to jettisoning programs."

Badams now says the district's best hope for long-term financial stability will be pushing for a new method of funding school districts other than state and federal subsidies and local property taxes.

"There's only so much we can do with a declining tax base and a high percentage of tax-exempt properties in the city," Badams said. "We either need a change in our basic funding or we need Erie to grow."